The development of the ability to assess recall performance

The ability of first and third graders to evaluate their recall performance was assessed. Third graders were more accurate in estimating the number of items they had recalled, although both groups showed considerable accuracy. The subjects' accuracy in assessing their recall after the fact was contrasted with indications that children are poor predictors of their recall performance.     

Target position and practice in the identification of letters in varying contexts: A word superiority effect

A forced-choice detection paradigm controlling for postperceptual inference was used to investigate letter identification in three-position displays. Letters from a predesignated set of four targets appeared singly, in strings of noise characters, in unpronounceable nonsense strings, and in words. Subjects knew which context would occur, but did not know which of the three display positions would contain the target. Correct detection data were collected at constant exposure duration over five testing sessions. Overall identification accuracy was higher in words than in all other contexts, the first word superiority effect to be found with targets specified in advance since Reicher’s (1969). This effect remained constant over sessions. An interaction between context type and target position showed enhanced accuracy for initial and terminal letters in words, but depressed accuracy at initial and terminal positions in other contexts. This was interpreted to mean that prior knowledge of context is used to alter the dynamics of perceptual analysis.     

Stepmothers and natural mothers: A study of maternal attitudes

The maternal attitudes of 15 natural mothers (M_d age 46) and 15 stepmothers (M_d age 47) were compared. The HerefordParent Attitude Survey was the instrument used to assess differences between the two populations on five scales measuring confidence, causation, acceptance, understanding, and trust. No significant differences were found between the two populations with the exception of the causation dimension (t=2.4840 p<.05), which indicated that stepmothers attribute the problem behavior of the child to genetic and environmental factors while natural mothers accept the influence of the maternal role in the child's problem behavior. It is the authors' opinion that the statistical similarities and differences found between the two samples is a reflection of the common problem they share, that of a child in treatment.     

Who is Afraid of Flexitime: Correlates of Personal Choice of a Flexitime Schedule

L'étude examina les facteurs influençant la volonté d'entrer dans un système d'horaires fiexibles. Les facteurs observés comprenaient des variables de travail c.a.d. la satisfaction au travail, le niveau de la profession et la centralité du travail, et des variables hors travail c.a.d. le temps de trajet, le stress du trajet et les activités de loisirs, et des variables de personnalité, c.a.d. le besoin de développement. Des questionnaires furent administrés à 125 employés examinant les propositions de leur entreprise d'adopter des horaires variables. Une analyse discriminante indiqua que le choix des horaires variables était d'abord liéà des besoins personnels de développement. Un rôle plus secondaire était joué par la perception des horaires variables comme moyens d'éviter, réduire ou compenser les aspects indésirables de la vie de travail ou hors travail d'un individu.
This study examined factors influencing die willingness to enter into a flexitime schedule. Factors surveyed included: Work variables such as work satisfaction, job level, and work centrality; non-work variables such as commuting time, commuting strain, and leisure activities; and personality variables such as need for growth. Questionnaires were administered to 125 employees contemplating a work-site proposal to move to a flexitime schedule. Discriminant analysis indicated that flexitime choice was primarily related to personal growth needs. A more secondary role was played by perceptions of flexitime as a means to avoid, reduce, or compensate for undesirable aspects of a person's working or non-working life.     

Tap,swipe, and build: Parental spatial input during iPad® and toy play

Despite the increase in the use of interactive technological devices, little is known about the impact that play context has on the production of spatial language by parents. To investigate whether there is differential parental spatial input afforded by play contexts with their preschoolers, 34 children (20 girls, 14 boys) and their primary caregivers engaged in 30‐min 3‐dimensional (3D) spatial play using blocks and puzzles and virtual 2‐dimensional (2D) spatial play using an iPad^® in 2 separate home visits. There were no significant differences in the average amount of spatial talk and the number of spatial categories used by parents in both 3D and 2D play contexts. However, the amount of parental spatial talk decreased significantly with older preschoolers using the iPad^®. In the 3D play contexts, parents produced more words related to spatial dimensions, location and directions, and continuous amount than in the 2D play contexts. However, in the 2D play contexts, they produced more words associated with orientations and transformations as well as deictics than in the 3D play contexts. Our findings suggest that technology can be effectively introduced into play contexts to elicit enriched parental spatial input by supporting parents and caregivers with best practices.

Highlights

• The present study examines the differences in parental spatial talk when using traditional versus technology‐based learning tools with their preschoolers.
• Two 30‐min home observations of parent–child dyads playing blocks and puzzles versus spatial apps on an iPad^®. No significant differences in the amount of parental spatial talk and the number of spatial categories in both play contexts were found.
• Our findings suggest that technology can be effectively introduced into play contexts to elicit enriched parental spatial input.

     

Considering prior knowledge when using elaborative interrogation

Previous studies have promoted the use of elaborative interrogation (a “why”-questioning strategy) for the acquisition of factual information. One assumption in these studies is that prior knowledge influences when students will be able to use the strategy, with greater prior knowledge leading to higher recall performance. In the studies reviewed here, the effect of prior knowledge on strategy effectiveness was investigated. Specifically, students' performances were compared for materials about which they possessed substantial prior knowledge, little prior knowledge, inconsistent prior knowledge, or shared prior knowledge. In general, the data support the use of elaborative interrogation when studying alone or in dyads especially when learners possess some relevant prior knowledge about the new information.     

Effects of stimulus variation on the reinforcing capability of nonpreferred stimuli

We examined the effects of stimulus (reinforcer) variation in several different contexts. In Study 1, we identified high-quality (HQ) and low-quality (LQ) stimuli based on results of a paired-stimulus assessment and examined their effects when available under concurrent-reinforcement schedules for 8 participants. No participants showed preference for the LQ stimuli when compared singly or in a varied arrangement to the HQ stimulus. In Study 2, we identified nonpreferred (NP) stimuli based on results of a single-stimulus assessment and examined their effects when available under single-reinforcement schedules for 3 participants. Results of Study 2 were mixed. One participant's data indicated that the varied presentation of NP stimuli produced a modest improvement in performance over that observed when the stimuli were presented singly. By contrast, a second participant's data showed no facilitative effect for the varied delivery of NP stimuli and that the inclusion of an HQ stimulus in the varied arrangement obscured the reinforcing effects of the HQ stimulus. The 3rd participant's data showed no effect for the varied delivery of NP stimuli but an apparent facilitative effect when an HQ stimulus was included in the varied arrangement, which was attributable solely to the presence of the HQ stimulus.     

Women's experiences of workplace bullying: changes in social relationships

This article reports a qualitative study, which investigated social processes in workplace bullying, based on in‐depth interviews with ten British women professionals who were targets of workplace bullying. Data were analysed using grounded theory methods. The resulting analysis showed links between disclosures of bullying, reactions of others, and some impacts on targets' psychological health. Key themes which emerged from the data included ‘being heard’ which describes how others reacted to disclosures of bullying behaviours, and the ‘ripple effect’ which describes how bullying impacted upon targets' significant others; these predominantly describe relationships with others outside the workplace. The theme of ‘withdrawal’ describes how targets and others managed relationships within the workplace, and ‘denial’ and ‘personalizing problems’ describe how others within the workplace responded to knowledge of bullying behaviours. The theme ‘maintaining self’ describes how participants responded to changed relationships and struggled to maintain a coherent sense of self during and subsequent to bullying. This research emphasizes the role of social processes and social environments, rather than individual or personality characteristics, in explaining the development of workplace bullying and its impacts on targets. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.